Non retractable foreskin in adult, should it be corrected and how.

[paisleypowell]

I am mainly a lurker, but have a question to ask. OK, I'm in a new relationship and this is a first for me. I wanted to ask here in hopes that someone would have some insight.

My new guy has an intact penis however the foreskin does not pull back all the way. If it isn't causing any problems is this something that he should try to correct just in case?

We've only talked about it very briefly and he did say that once he went to a doctor for a physical and asked offhand about it. That doctor mentioned circ and he basically never went back to him after that.

What I'm wondering though, having had experiences with intact men who retract I think he is missing out on some things. And, I worry what if it retracted and got stuck?

Anyone else have experiences with this? And what would you do about it?

[Fellow Traveler]

This sounds like a mild case of phimosis. If it isn't causing him any particular problems, such as urination or sexual, then he doesn't really have to do anything. Phimosis (unretractability) can be treated very effectively with either gentle stretching exercises or a topical cream; circumcising for phimosis is not at all necessary and the most invasive treatment.

If your interested here is a journal article dealing with treatment of phimosis.
Cost-effective Treatment of Phimosis PEDIATRICS Vol. 102 No. 4 October 1998, p. e43. where Dr. Van Howe concluded: The most cost-effective management for treating phimosis is to initiate topical therapy. Daily external application from the tip of the foreskin to the glandis corona with betamethasone 0.05% cream for 4 to 6 weeks has been demonstrated to be very effective, resulting in a 75% savings compared with circumcision. Surgical intervention should not be considered until topical therapy has been given an adequate trial. When contemplating surgery, the lower morbidity, lower costs, and tissue preservation of preputial plasty may make it preferable.

[phatchristy]

I know someone whose husband stretched on his own to become retractable and did not use any steroid cream. I believe that you can google it and find more information. Someone posted about I know that I've seen some information written about it even in foreskin restoration...that there are men who stretch to expand their foreskin to gain more coverage (if they have a short one) and those who stretch to become retractable.

Good luck and have fun!

[perspective]

Originally Posted by paisleypowell

I am mainly a lurker, but have a question to ask. OK, I'm in a new relationship and this is a first for me. I wanted to ask here in hopes that someone would have some insight.

My new guy has an intact penis however the foreskin does not pull back all the way. If it isn't causing any problems is this something that he should try to correct just in case?

We've only talked about it very briefly and he did say that once he went to a doctor for a physical and asked offhand about it. That doctor mentioned circ and he basically never went back to him after that.

What I'm wondering though, having had experiences with intact men who retract I think he is missing out on some things. And, I worry what if it retracted and got stuck?

Anyone else have experiences with this? And what would you do about it?

His penis is perfectly healthy. He probably does not have phimosis. REAL phimosis is involves a lot more then just a tight foreskin. Guys foreskins tend to loosen over time, for some its earlier, and for some its later, and for some guys, it does not happen at all. Really, its a personal preference, nothing else.

For some reason, no matter if its a parent or a loved one, our culture has this built in fear that there is something that has to be fixed in the penis. Think of the penis like any other body part. If its working properly and the owner is not complaining, whats the problem? As the old saying goes, if its not broken, dont fix it!

[MCatLvrMom2A&X]

If he wants to he can start gentle stretching excersises. Every day he should open the foreskin and pull until it starts to get tight then hold it. Then he should try to gently retract it as far as it will go and hold that. He can go and get steroid cream to help with it. It probably wouldnt take as long with the steroid cream but he would still have to do it every day and for faster results do it several times a day.

If he is ok with it then it is NOT a problem you can present him with the information and let him decide if he would like to try and get it to retract.

[hakunangovi]

There are some (a few) men that go through life perfectly happy with a non retractile foreskin, so it is not really a problem per se. It really is up to the owner of the penis.

Should he wish to make it retractile there are several avenues available.

First I would read up at www.cirp.org/library/treatment/phimosis/ . Part way down is a link to a forum on manual stretching. In the reference list are links to several papers detailing the use of steroid creams. The most common being Betamethasone 0.05. As mentioned above this would likely speed up the process.

There are also two stretching devices on the market that I know of. One is an inflatable device that is inserted into the foreskin and expanded. See it at www.gfs.platigo.com . The other is called a glansie, and roughly resembles a pair of snap ring pliers. Insert one end into the foreskin opening and squeese the handles to stretch.

By the way , should his foreskin ever retract and get stuck, DO NOT let a Dr talk him into a circumcision. The head needs to be compressed and the foreskin replaced forward. Again , information on this can be found at www.cirp.org under 'paraphimosis'.

Hope this helps.

[Frankly Speaking]

I have helped several men with this. The recommendation was for them to retract their foreskin as far as possible each time they toileted and in the bath. This gently stretches the preputial sphincter. They all reported back within days to several weeks that they were completely and comfortably retractile. Simple no hassle solution!


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[paisleypowell]

I wanted to report back to everyone that I looked into your responses and a private message and he did start pulling back twice a day to stretch and now the foreskin moves fully back and over! I'm very glad that he followed his instincts and ran away from that doctor who brought up circumcision. It makes me so mad to think that some men who don't think like him might have had the circ even though it can be this easy to fix.

[MommytoB]

Originally Posted by paisleypowell

I wanted to report back to everyone that I looked into your responses and a private message and he did start pulling back twice a day to stretch and now the foreskin moves fully back and over! I'm very glad that he followed his instincts and ran away from that doctor who brought up circumcision. It makes me so mad to think that some men who don't think like him might have had the circ even though it can be this easy to fix.

yeah usa is a world too cut happy that they been removing foreskin is all the most docs know about foreskin -cut it off -that because of that intact men & parents of intact sons have to be smarter than doctors because we want protection for them.

I'm glad he ran away from the doc who suggested circ it is sad that many people don't question solutions the doctor gives and I'm glad his foreskin is moving all the way

[MCatLvrMom2A&X]

Thank you for the update paisley. Just think he could have lost that valuable part of his penis for no good reason. It really hurts to think of how many men a year are cut on for exactly what your dbf had and there was absolutly no need.

[PuppyFluffer]

I just returned from a weekend at the US Capitol in WAshington DC for the annual demonstration for the Genital Integrity Awareness Week.

We had a lot of interface with the public. I want to tell a story of one man who approached and said he had to have a circumcision done at the age of 14 and it was terrible. He had this done because he couldn't pull his foreskin back. He was born in Russia and naturally left intact, as they are an intact culture there. He said that 20% of men will have this problem and it was terrible. One of the very knowledgable men engaged him in discussion of this and he was adamant that it was necessary for him to undergo. It was very clear in this angry tone and refusal to acknowledge the information being presented to him that he had some strong denial going on. I asked where he had the circumcision performed and he said Russia, so apparently, conservative approaches are not necessarily always taken in intact cultures to this issue. This man strongly refused to acknowledge that 20% is not a correct rate of this problem and was resistant to hearing that there were less invasive options available to him. It's sad, because unless he really drops the wall he's built, if he ever has a son, he'll most likely end up circumcised from a rare problem his dad had. This man was unswayed by the fact that even if his statistic was right, 80% of all men will have no trouble at all with a tight foreskin. Sad.

I am very glad that the Original Poster's man was able to find a conservative way to keep his whole body!

[cherri0196]

I didn't read the other response's YET but im going to as soon as i post but my boyfriend of (almost) 6 years has the same "problem" he can retract the foreskin when he is flaccid but it is unretractable when erect, i have talked to him about it and told him he can do stretching excersice's but he's not interested in doing them and say's its fine the way it is. So your not the only one. I think sex would be more enjoyable (for both of us) if he were able to retract when erect but its still good but i think i could be better.....

Also he has no other problems with it, he can still masturbate and pee just fine. Also he produce's beautiful children!!! LOL , i know that has nothing to do with anything but thought i would throw that in there ;-)

Off to read the other response's